Creativity. Tragically, this is something I've found alot of recent commercial games are severely lacking. It's one thing to make a realistic game, but it's quite another to make a fun game. Sandbox of God isn't exactly dead-on accurate in it's representation of life/evolution on earth, but it's a fun, light-hearted, and; perhaps most importantly; a creative take on playing god.

Gameplay

The "gameplay" here entails clicking buttons in different orders, and that's it. The clean and simple interface makes the game incredibly pick-up-and-playable, so anyone can start the game in two seconds and know what they're doing. Plus, the author has included a help system for even the most basic functions. I really believe anyone who can read can also play this game. Keep in mind, though, that this doesn't make the game easy - easy to pick up it is, easy to master it is not.

But how can it be so hard to master if all you do is click buttons? Because the order in which you click them greatly influences their effects. The first time you play this game, you'll most likely get close to the worst rank possible. The game's unique puzzles take some getting used to, and having knowledge of the abilities you'll be given next turn will help you decide what course of action to take. In other words, beating the game once isn't enough. You can click buttons randomly and beat it, but beating it with a good rank is the hard part.

Now the cons... The fancy effects look good the first time through, but after that they resemble un-skippable cutscenes you've seen 100 times before. You'll want to speed through the process of dishing out miracles/plagues to see your score while the game is taking it's sweet time. Also, a few (very few) effects don't seem to match the actions that brought them on. For example, I don't understand how a sign from god can increase man's IQ by 10 points. If these issues seem petty, well, it's because they are. I'm just going through the motions here, these cons really didn't bug me all that much, and they're the only flaws I found in the gameplay.

Presentation

The game's graphic style is very cartoony, reinforcing the light-hearted mood. Particles are thrown around at every opportunity, giving the game an arcadey look and feel. Best of all, the graphical style is consistant throughout the game. Some miracles/plagues don't have a graphical effect (heat wave and strong winds come to mind), but most have a cool animation to relate to the player exactly what is happening. The menu is needlessly hard to read - but I must admit it looks really cool.

Sound effects fit perfectly and go well with what they portray, while music is decidedly epic to go with the subject matter.

Conclusion

Let me return to what I said in my introduction. Sandbox of God oozes creativity. Mr. Chubigans has pulled together my dream GM game. Deep gameplay, consistant and smooth graphics, fitting sound, and oh so much originality. Without a doubt, this is my favorite GM game ever, and it'll be getting an icon on my desktop, right next to Ore No Ryomi 2.

This has to be the GREATEST game of ALL TIME. Or at least for GM. I actually posted a commented about 5 years ago and some change... This game just amazes me, totally hold all respects to the review of it.

Ahh this game...I had the urge to play it again after not playing it for about 4 months! Great game, TOTALLY AWESOME REPLAY VALUE. 10/10. And I love the music from 'A Beautiful Mind.' (That movie is also 10/10) =P

Nice idea, and well done. Music is very fitting. Although too repetetive after a while plus i got quite frustrated coz it's really hard to get 100%. Also, like many other people here said, it's annoying that you can't skip the animations.

Uhh Fatalbertthe must be a lunatic (or he just has crappy taste in games(or he just sucks balls at this one)) because this game is da bomb!
I love all the ways of finishing it, i never managed to filled out the checklist and did have this game for ages(too bad my old computer exploded) but i think i'll dl this again and play it for a while!

*sigh* I know that I rated already, but fatalbertthe's completely biased rating needed some canceling-out. 'this game sucks'. That doesn't tell me anything. All I know is that it is completely mind-consuming and I love it.

And did I mention I love it?

2006.10.08 fatalbertthe
Rating: 1

this game was fun at first. then i played it a bit more. IT SUCKS!!!! i hate this game so much!!!! it is not only hard but boring 2. it sucks. it doesn't even desevre a 1 but thats as low as i can rate it. This game sucks!!! did i mention this game sucks?!? well, it sucks!!!

This game is simply perfect. The way that a player must think before doing anything is excellently implemented. It reminds me very much of Black and White, except...better. Surprisingly, I actually am not giving this a 10, more like a 9.5, since it gets annoying when you cannot skip animations. Other than that, PERFECT JOB Mr. Chubigans!

An awesome game. This is the game that got me bloodthirsty for more games like it. The graphics are awesome, and I like the different effects. If there were anything higher than a 10, I'd give this it. The only con is the slowness. I've lost a lot of seeds because it takes so long to end an era and make it finish raining.

Probably the best game ive downloaded after finding this site a day ago. Graphics are great.
Gameplay is great. The replay value is awsome evertime you play something new happens in your world.
-KillJoy

Gameplay 7/10 It gives the player lose of control durning turns and its a little to hard for my taste. I didn't even know how to start the game at first but i got over that. Mostly the game is for people who like turn based games.

Sounds&music 10/10 The sounds were quite right for there purprose like the first born it had crying. For thunder it had a rich loud thunder sound.

Overall /8.5 for me but i'll guess i'll round to 9 good job this must of takeing some hard work.

THIS is an excellent game. The only, and most perfect, earth simulation I have ever seen. The cutscenes are pretty cool (I haven't gotten tired of them yet; I've only beat it once.) Great creativity! *stars vertigogaming*

2005.09.23 Team OG
Rating: 10

I love this game! Rogan, see I am Team OG! It is such a good game - I've been playing it for hours!

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! HOW TO GET NUCLEAR STRIKE AND VOLCANO AHEAD!!!!

ok people! here is how to get a volcano and/or the nuclear strike! (btw, this is the best game ever!) anyway:

get the mountain as early as possible. this means only doing trees and the earthquake an the water before the crator. then give some rabbits out, and then the wind. now that its a real mountain, use thunder then heat on it. activate mankind lastly.

follow the earlier steps until you activate the bunnies.then activate man. now do whatever you want, but say yes to the bunnies.

now, do the heatwave, then anything besides holy thunder. say no to man and then use the holy strike. do anyithing here.

use the farm first in this next era, then the bugs. they will survive and become smarter. say yes to bunnies. do anything.

give man a code of laws when he asks for it here.
give it time, then wait for them to get smart and use thunder or flood or whatever activates thunder.if the have launched the catapult, gotten the rock of laws and survived the plague, they should get electricity. now you can do water into blood.

This is one of those 'you can't live without it' types off games. Whether you like them or not, you need to play them to experience this one-of-a-kind genre. Yeah, a simulation of a God... Very unique. That alone is special. In a nutshell, this game is all about governing the world intelligently, not just clicking random buttons. Much more challenging that what it first appears to be. Congratulations.

I haven't even played it and i like it!My favourite
GMG games are:
1.Sanbox of god
2.Legend of Shadow
3.Kill the evil my little ponies3D
4.Magora: the fire token(which isn't on yet, cuz
i'm still making it)

Very nice game, nice graphics and sounds :D and also very addictive. Only thing is that u can't skip the animation effects, that makes the game a bit boring if you've seen the same animation for the 100 time. But over al its a very nice made game. But i'm stuck on the volcano thing! how can you create it, and make it stay the next era?

well..i think it's good. actually, it could have been excellent if there was a bit more interactivity. i feel that just clicking some buttons is a bit limited. however, in my opinion it's a good game - i have really enjoyed it.

this game is one of the best i've ever played
my top games:
1 - Jetz rampage 4
2 - Red baron vs green corsar (simple but good)
3 - Praelior
4 - This game

However: while I create a volcano, and i want it to erupt, it disappears during the switch of eras.
It's full of suprises, because once I wanted to screw it up, but my men had been able to defend the first plague and they ended up with about 195 IQ.

excellent, I'll be playing this for ages, trying to get 100% completion

2004.11.20 Deeje the Great
Rating: 9

!!! its great!! i love everything about it! i told my cousin about it and we played it while talking on the phone for hours! This is my new favorite GM game.

The only thing i didn't like was, as mentioned in the review, the waiting. I wish you could click a skip button or somthing to pass the long pauses. This doesn't affect the pleasure of the game though.

If anyone beats the game, please say so here. I'm dying to know how to do the nuclear strike.

In my opinion, this much much better than the other games I have played by Mr. Chubigans.
It reminds me much of a flash game called grow 3 though, but it is still very original.
The graphics fit together and are not confusing, but still interresting. There is nothing wrong with the sound either.